widowx_arm

This ROS package is intended to work with the WidowX arm.

• widowx_arm_controller : Controller based on arbotix_python driver to control the arm
• widowx_arm_description : Description of the arm

Installation and configuration

Setting up the Arbotix-M board

In order to work with ROS it is necessary to upload the firmware into the Arbotix-M board.

• Download Arduino ide from https://downloads.arduino.cc/arduino-1.0.6-linux64.tgz
  • wget https://downloads.arduino.cc/arduino-1.0.6-linux64.tgz
• Extract it into a folder.
• Download the firmware archives from https://github.com/trossenrobotics/arbotix/archive/master.zip
  • wget https://github.com/trossenrobotics/arbotix/archive/master.zip
• Extract it into a folder like ~/Documents/Arduino
• Run arduino from the folder you extracted it previously
  • cd ~/Downloads/arduino-1.0.6
  • ./arduino
• Once Arduino IDE is running, change the Sketchbook folder location to /Documents/Arduino/arbotixmaster or the one you extracted it previously.
  • File->Preferences->Sketchbook Location
  • Tools->Board->Arbotix
  • Tools->Serial Port->/dev/ttyUSBX
  • File->Sketchbook->Arbotix Sketches ->ros
  • Verify + Upload
• The Arbotix is ready to work with ROS!!

Downloading the package

clone the repo into your workspace and compile it.

git clone https://github.com/RobotnikAutomation/widowx_arm.git

Creating the udev rule for the device

In the widowx_arm_controller/config folder there’s the file 58-widowx.rules. You have to copy it into the /etc/udev/rules.d folder.

sudo cp 58-widowx.rules /etc/udev/rules.d

You have to set the attribute ATTRS{serial} with the current serial number of the ftdi device

udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyUSB0 | grep serial 

Once modified you have to reload and restart the udev daemon

sudo service udev reload
sudo service udev restart
sudo udevadm trigger

Running the controller

roslaunch widowx_arm_controller widowx_arm_controller.launch 

Commanding the controller

rostopic pub /joint_1/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /joint_2/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /joint_3/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /joint_4/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /joint_5/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /gripper_revolute_joint/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0" 
rostopic pub /gripper_prismatic_joint/command std_msgs/Float64 "data: 0.0"

Visualizing the state

Load the description and run the state publisher

roslaunch widowx_arm_description load_description.launch

Open the RVIZ tool and add the plugins you need to visualize the arm

rosrun rviz rviz